


Underlying Issues

by Oracle507



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [2]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Anxiety, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders is a Good Friend, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders is a Sweetheart, Everyone Has Issues, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Insecure Morality | Patton Sanders, Insecurity, Insomnia, Morality | Patton Sanders Angst, Morality | Patton Sanders Needs a Hug, Morality | Patton Sanders Tries, Morality | Patton Sanders is a Good Friend, Morality | Patton Sanders is a Sweetheart, Morality | Patton Sanders-centric, Not that I hate people that happen to hate Patton. You can hate whatever chartacters you want, Paranoia, Patton is my least favorite of the main sides but I still love him and will die for him., Please don't be mean to him in the comments, Post-Episode: Putting Others First - Selfishness v. Selflessness Redux | Sanders Sides, Sympathetic Morality | Patton Sanders, Sympathetic everyone but this fic is very pro Patton and anti the hatred of patton, because no, just don't talk to be about it, nervous breakdown
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:48:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25873888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oracle507/pseuds/Oracle507
Summary: Patton has been left feeling overwhelmed by everything going on recently. Logan has been snapping at everyone and socializing with them less and Roman won’t stop sulking in his room. While he’s on good terms with Janus, that fact only serves to worsen his already declining friendship with Virgil. How will Patton react when a game night spirals everyone into a worse mood?
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders, Deceit | Janus Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders, Logic | Logan Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders, Morality | Patton Sanders & Everyone
Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1859785
Comments: 14
Kudos: 108
Collections: Bad Things Happen Bingo





	Underlying Issues

**Author's Note:**

> TW: Nervous Breakdown, insecurity, paranoia, insomnia, anxiety

Things were stressful in the mind palace after the wedding. No one really really talked to each other anymore, instead opting to spend as much time in their own rooms as possible. Patton didn’t like this change and hoped the others felt the same way deep down. After all, they all still loved each other… Right? ‘No, of course they do. We’re all a family!’

Patton hoped to rectify their current situation with a game night. He had spent the last few days inviting everyone and making plans to ensure that everything went as smoothly as possible. ‘I’ll start with Uno because that’s always fun. Then maybe Game of Life? No Monopoly, that always stresses Virgil out. Oh, but Logan loves that game and Janus would probably like it to. Dang it! I should’ve asked Janus and Remus what they like. What if they hate Uno? What if Janus doesn’t like that it’s mostly luck and then starts talking about how unfair life is and then Virgil gets anxious and has to leave and everything sucks and it’s my fault?’ He shook his head and suppressed the anxiety.

When game night arrived, Patton meticulously set up the table in the living room with popcorn, pretzels, and carrots (that last one added mostly for Logan’s sake). He took a seat at the table a whole half hour before the arranged time, anxious for the night to begin. Logan showed up second. He took a seat next to Patton about five minutes before time. Then came Roman, then Virgil. No one said anything beyond basic pleasantries.

“If everyone’s here, why don’t we just-” Roman cut himself off when Remus appeared in front of him wearing an over-sized party hat and bloody clown makeup.

“PARTY TIME!” Remus said before blowing a party horn. Instead of the normal horn noise, the sound of nails scratching a chalkboard echoed around the room. Everyone grabbed their ears as Remus laughed.

“Remus!” Patton said. “I thought we agreed that you wouldn’t do anything to hurt or scare us?”

“Just getting it out of my system.” He shrugged, changed back into his regular outfit, and sat down next to Roman.

“What is he doing here?” Virgil asked.

“Yeah, I didn’t agree to this,” Roman said.

“Wow, Roman. Your own brother.” Remus shook his head at him. “Tisk tisk.”

“I know, I probably should’ve warned you,” Patton said, “but this is a game night for all of us. It would be rude to exclude anyone.” While Patton found Remus to be… unsettling, he knew he’d have to accept him for Thomas’ sake. That wasn’t the only reason Patton invited him. Of all the sides, he seemed to be the only one without some sort of problem he had to worry about solving. That brought Patton a certain amount of solace.

Virgil sighed, having also recently learned the lesson that he had to be more accepting of the Duke. “Fine, I guess. Just as long as Janus doesn’t show up.”

“Well then,” Janus said right after he popped up. “I certainly have amazing timing.”

“Nope, I’m out.” Virgil stood up.

“No!” Patton said, panicked.

“Sorry, Pat. Not putting up with his BS and Remus’.” He went off to his room. Roman tried to follow but Patton grabbed his arm.

“Please, Roman.”

“First you invite my awful brother, then you get this snake to show up, too? I thought you wanted this to be fun and relaxing.”

“It will be if you just-”

“Did you forget what he did? He manipulated me- ALL of us to get what he wanted. He posed as you, then as Logan  _ twice _ .”

“Right, and absolutely nothing good came out of that second one,” Janus said.

“Please just sit back down,” Patton begged. “I know you’re both still mad at each other, but Janus agreed to this and he knew you and Virgil would be there.”

“So you like him more than me now!?”

“Actually, me and Sneki had a bet that Virgil would run out the second he got there. Speaking of which…” Remus pulled out a bunch of soaking wet monopoly money and gave it to Janus.

“I… Don’t know what you expect me to do with this, but I supposed that is what I get for betting with you.”

“Alright, I’m done.” Roman forced his arm out of Patton’s grip before storming off. Patton turned to look at Logan, only to see that he must have left a while ago. He groaned before dropping his face into his hands.

He looked up when he heard cards falling onto the table in front of him. “Let’s play!” Remus threw the Uno box over his shoulder. Patton forced a friendly smile before shuffling the deck. ‘This is fine. I’ll deal with everyone else later. Just play with them so I’m not rude then deal with everything else later. 

_ ‘Everything’s worse now oh my gosh I messed up so bad this is so bad.’ _

‘Everything is fine.’

* * *

Patton stared up from his bed at the ceiling, trying to figure out where he went wrong. ‘I should’ve told them I invited the dark sides. But then they wouldn’t come. Still, they didn’t end up staying anyway. At least then there would’ve been a chance.’ He turned on his side and cuddled Thomas’ old unicorn plushie. ‘Why did Logan leave? He didn’t even say anything. I don’t even know why he’s been so upset lately. Why won’t he tell me?’ He hugged the plushie closer. ‘No, I should know. I’m the Dad here. I should know why my kiddos are upset and help them. That’s my job.’

He didn’t get any sleep that night.

* * *

Patton almost fell down the stairs as he forced his numb legs to walk him to the kitchen. ‘I can still cook. Everyone likes my cooking.’ He started the exhausting process of making homemade waffles. Once done, he stacked them all on a plate. He reached to take a piece himself but stopped when he realized he wasn’t hungry.

He sat down in the kitchen, drinking water and waiting for the others to come down. Logan arrived first. He gave Patton a quick nod before taking a waffle and leaving for his room. ‘What? No! You were supposed to stay down here so we could all talk!’ Patton couldn’t bring himself to stop him. ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with him right now. It could be me. He might just hate me and not want to be around me. What if that’s it? It could be. Oh no! But I love him. I just want him to talk to me.’

Patton’s heart sank further as Roman and Virgil, in that order, each took their own meals to their bedrooms. ‘At least Roman said thank you…’ He numbly put the leftover waffles in the fridge before returning to his own room.

* * *

Patton knocked on Roman’s door with faux enthusiasm. His new and improved plan was to speak to each side directly in order to help them with their problems. He wanted to start with Roman, mostly because that was the only one where he was pretty sure he actually knew what the problem was and the solution seemed easy enough. All he had to do was make sure Roman understood that everyone loves him and Thomas still thinks of him as his hero. Easy, right?

Roman answered the door. Patton felt his muscles stiffen when he saw the other side’s neutral expression. ‘He’s normally always got some emotion. What’s going on? Does he hate me now, too?’ “Good afternoon, Pat. Do you need something?”

“Nope. I just wanted to hang out with my favorite prince!”

Roman’s eyes widened slightly before he moved aside to let Patton in. The collage of Disney Posters and playbills that decorated the walls could never fail to make Patton’s day at least slightly better. Roman sat down on his bed. “Anything you want to talk about?” He smiled warmly. ‘See? There’s no way he hates me.’

“Yeah. I wanted to say sorry for game night. I know I should’ve-”

“Don’t worry about it,” Roman cut in as he dropped eye contact. “Just don’t do that again.”

“I won’t.” Patton sat down in an armchair designed to resemble a throne. “But I want to talk about Jan-”

“Well, I don’t.” Roman looked back up at him with an expression entirely devoid of the previous warmth. “I don’t know why you won’t just let it go. I’m fine! I’m allowed to not like Janus. Believe it or not, we do not  _ all  _ have to like each other like one big family!.”

“I just...” Patton swallowed. “I’m okay with you not liking him. I don’t wanna make you do anything. I just want you to be happy and I don’t think are right now.”

“What gives you the right to-” Roman made wild hand gestures as he spoke. Patton’s body moved before he could think, pushing himself further into the couch. His heart rate sped up and he fought to catch a breath. Roman’s arms fell back to his side. “I’m…” He couldn’t meet Patton’s eyes. “Just go. Now.”

Patton did as he was told. He collapsed outside the room and attempted to calm himself. ‘What was that? I know Roman wouldn’t hurt me. That was so mean! He’s already upset that Janus called him evil and now I’m acting like he is evil. He would never hurt any of us.’

_ ‘Except he hates me now. I mess everyone up and he knows it. Of course he wants me gone. Who wouldn't?’ _

He couldn’t bring himself to visit any of the other sides, instead opting to rest in his own room.

* * *

Days passed in a blur. Patton stared at his door for hours as he willed himself to go out there and make things right. He couldn’t, thought. He never could. It was too much. Just the idea of doing anything left him exhausted. ‘The longer I wait, the harder it will be. But I’ve already waited way too long and it’s already too hard. It’s too late. But I need to do something. I need to fix this. I can’t, but I need to.’

* * *

There was a knock on Patton’s door. Patton numbly invited the person inside, not bothering to get out of bed or turn to face the door.

“Hey, Pat.” Patton jumped up at the voice and fixed his hair in an attempt to appear more put together. Virgil stood in front of him with a waffle, glass of water, and solemn expression. “I.. You haven’t left your room for a while. At least, no one’s seen you out. It’s not much, but…” He set everything down on Patton’s nightstand. Getting a closer look, the waffle was slightly burnt and covered in lots of syrup (possibly to make up for burning it).

“Thank you.” His eyes watered in gratitude, but he couldn’t make himself reach for the food. “Do you need something else? I can help you with-”

“I don’t need anything. I just want you to eat.” Reluctantly, Patton grabbed the plate and took a bite of the waffle. “Is it good?” He nodded. “Good. I wanted to check in on you because, well, I know what a nervous breakdown looks like and this is definitely it.”

Patton almost spit out the food in his mouth. “What?”

“I talked to Roman about what happened in his room. You’ve also seemed kinda jumpy lately and now you aren’t leaving your room and… Things have been stressful. I get it. I would’ve helped you if you asked, though.”

“No, you shouldn’t have to do that.” He forced a smile. “I’m fine, and I know everyone has stuff going on right now. I also know that you kinda hate me now that I’m friends with Janus, so this is really more than enough. Thank you.”

“You think…” Virgil momentarily looked hurt before shaking his head. “I always thought stupid things like that when I was like that. I can’t get mad at you for it.” Sighing, he took a seat next to Patton. “I never hated you. Not even when you started hanging out with…  _ him _ . I was upset. Still am, but I’ll get over it. I’m sorry I let you feel like that. I didn’t want to… It’s just… I’m bad at being nice and telling people I like them and stuff. I guess that kinda makes it easy for you to think that I don’t like you. I do, though.”

Patton put the plate down next to him and pulled Virgil into a hug. “I don’t know what to do,” he sobbed. “All of my kiddos are so sad and I can’t fix it. What kind of dad am I?”

“They aren’t your problems to fix. At least, not to fix by yourself. Roman’s got some sort of self confidence thing going on that we’ll all have to help him with. I don’t know what’s going on with Logan, but I doubt you’re the sole problem there. We’ll figure that out. Janus and I… We have some things to talk about. We will, eventually. You don’t have to do anything there. You’re okay. No one hates you.”

* * *

When Patton next woke, he saw the waffle and water left neatly on his nightstand with a note:

“Go to the living room at 7:00 PM.

\- Logan”

He looked at the clock, which read 7:03, and rushed to make sure he looked okay before heading down. ‘Logan hates it when people are late. This is bad.’

He didn’t know what he had expected to find waiting for him, but it certainly wasn’t all of his fellow sides, including the dark sides, sitting on the couch in onesies with blankets and popcorn. “Movie night!” Remus said in his Shrek onesie sitting on the ground with Roman. Virgil, Logan, and Janus sat on the couch (in that order) with a gap left between the latter two.

“While I can excuse your tardiness, given the sudden decision to hold this gathering, I would like to get started,” Logan said.

Patton had to resist the urge to pinch himself. “W… What? What happened? Why are you doing this?” He glanced over at Virgil, who was looking down and blushing.

“Well,” Janus said, “Virgil brought to our attention that you aren’t feeling well.” Virgil’s cheeks somehow managed to turn a deeper shade of red. “Despite our differences, being a part of Thomas Sanders had given us all a deep appreciation of Disney movies. Some more than others.” He glanced down at Roman. “So we all decided that a movie marathon would cheer you up.

“Come one, Pat! Let’s go!” Roman got up and pulled Patton to his seat.

As they all watched Big Hero Six (Logan’s choice) together, Patton’s anxiety melted away. Sure, waves of exhaustion and tension hit him occasionally (‘What if they start fighting? Please don’t fight!), but things certainly seemed much better than they had before.This proved everyone could work together with the right motivation. In this case, that motivation was Patton’s well being. He loved them for that, and now he could say with certainty that they loved him too.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I'm always looking to improve, so feel free to leave your criticisms/questions in the comments or message me on my Tumblr. Link to that: https://nerdywriterhaven.tumblr.com/  
> I hope you guys liked this oneshot. My next one is going to be an ATLA oneshot, so hype for that! Don't worry, most of the BTHB stories are going to center around Sanders Sides. I just want to branch out a little bit.  
> Also, it might be weird to ask this here because this fic is completely unrelated to my Stronger Than Fate fanfic, but my Tumblr gets very little traction so I thought it would be better to ask here and hope people that read that story will see. I mention at the end of the story that I would write out "deleted scenes" that I outlined but for one reason or another didn't write into the story and post them in a separate story. Now that the story is completed, it feels weird to revisit it. I'm totally fine with going through with it and think it would be fun, but I don't know if people actually want it or not. Can people tell me in the comments if you want me to go forward with that plan? Thank you!


End file.
